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Topic: Those are MY headphones!!! (Read 2589 times)

Last quarter, I lost track of this little radio I listened to with a fine pair of headphones. I looked for them around the house but they would never turn up. Could I have lost them at school? Are they under my bed? Why am I always losing things?Today, as I was waiting for the bus to leave school, I saw a man wearing the same headphones with the same radio! It was the same radio that a friend gave me in eighth grade, and the same pair of headphones that I bought at Hastings. He got on the bus before me, and I knew they were mine. At first, I had feelings of anger. Then, I began to wonder how he acquired them. Did he steal them? Did I leave them on the bus or in a classroom? I wanted to approach him and say, "Excuse me, but those are my headphones and that is my Walk-Man". Instead, I accepted it. Why? Did not Jesus command that if a man takes your cloak, give him the other also? Throughout the bus ride, I felt tempted to approach him. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt compelled to say the Jesus Prayer. What is all this about? Any other guy would go after him, I thought to myself. What makes me different? Perhaps it is something I could do without, anyway. For the past few months, it is not like I have agonized over the absence of my radio. But then again... I still wonder...Did I wuss out?

Taint necessarily so! Why is it that superiority always comes through in these?

Almost any other guy would have used the pride to at least approach him. I have a friend who I let borrow one of my Irish dress hats because he is Irish and is obsessed with anything Irish. That was a year ago ago and he still hasn't given it back to me. The last time I saw him, he was downtown with his mother and I asked for it back. He wouldn't give it back because he said that his hair was messed up. I didn't protest that. I just walked away. I'm just passive, I guess. Even if I didn't have a Gospel verse to remind me to forgive and forget, I'd probably still not do anything about people who steal from me anyway. But isn't it a matter of self-respect to at least try? Or perhaps that is just what materialism would tell us.

Matthew, do you even realize that posts always end up sounding like you think you're different than everyone else? If you really think so, why talk about it? Saying that you didn't use pride where another boy would have sounds like Publican and Pharisee to me.

Matthew, you did a very good thing, but you should not tell us; the Fathers tell us that if we reveal our good deeds to men we will get no reward from God because we have received our reward on earth in praise. So while I am happy that you did what perhaps (as you noted) not many would have done, next time let God be the only one to know.

Marjorie

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"The land of God is wide and large enough to provide room for everyone if we are humans. If we act like brutes, then there will not be enough room even if there are only four of us."

Matthew, you did a very good thing, but you should not tell us; the Fathers tell us that if we reveal our good deeds to men we will get no reward from God because we have received our reward on earth in praise.

Thank you for considering it a good deed. I wasn't sure if I was just being foolish, not getting my Walk-Man back. You see, I went to an inner city high school where other guys in the same incident would have gotten angry and perhaps started a fight. Guys like me would have been seen as less of a man, even though not everyone was the "tough guy".

Matthew, do you even realize that posts always end up sounding like you think you're different than everyone else?

Maybe this is just a "guy thing". Yes, those posts made it sound like I'm "different" from anyone else, less of a man for not defending myself. I am sorry if I have somehow offended you, perhaps this discussion was innapropriate for this forum.

Matthew, you did a very good thing, but you should not tell us; the Fathers tell us that if we reveal our good deeds to men we will get no reward from God because we have received our reward on earth in praise. So while I am happy that you did what perhaps (as you noted) not many would have done, next time let God be the only one to know.

Marjorie

And also they say to correct your brother in private first, so here we go multiplying our error of this issue of doing a good deed even further, probably even including myself by mentioning this! What a conundrum we have all gotten ourself in!

I wasn't sure if I was just being foolish, not getting my Walk-Man back.

Are you saying you don't know and need help in figuring it out? And in the process of helping you, if we happen to recognize what a heroic effort of piety you exercised... welllllll you won't complain, now will ya?

Yep, it sure does . I used to live in Tahlequah, about 50 minutes from Tulsa, in the late 90's.

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"The creed is very simple, and here is what it is: to believe that there is nothing more beautiful, more courageous, and more perfect than Christ; and there not only isn't, but I tell myself with a jealous love, there cannot be." ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

I hate to break it to you, but the simple act of asking back your own possession from another who has unlawfully acquired it, is not in and of itself a detestable act before God, nor is it a violation of Matthew 5:40. I’m quite sure Jesus would not have minded you humbly and gently inquiring into the facts concerning the walkman in question, in order that you may re-possess it if indeed it is ultimately discerned to be your own.

I guess if there is any positive virtue that I can interpret from this incident, it is according to the fact you followed your conscious with good intentions, as opposed to submitting to any actual moral principle requiring you to just let other people take your stuff.

Peace.

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No longer an active member of this forum. Sincerest apologies to anyone who has taken offence to anything posted in youthful ignorance or negligence prior to my leaving this forum - October, 2012.

"Philosophy is the imitation by a man of what is better, according to what is possible" - St Severus

One thought for the possible avoidance of embarrassment: Since the electronics company likely made thousands of the same radio and headset, were there some particular distinguishing marks one the ones the other man had? If not, it must might have been that he has the same taste listening equipment that you do. Also, supposing that you *had* lost them and he or another had found them. If there is no i.d. showing the owner, there may not have been malice or purposeful theft involved.

Jumping to conclusions can lead to embarrassing situations.

Ebor

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"I wish they would remember that the charge to Peter was "Feed my sheep", not "Try experiments on my rats", or even "Teach my performing dogs new tricks". - C. S. Lewis

One thought for the possible avoidance of embarrassment: Since the electronics company likely made thousands of the same radio and headset, were there some particular distinguishing marks one the ones the other man had? If not, it must might have been that he has the same taste listening equipment that you do. Also, supposing that you *had* lost them and he or another had found them. If there is no i.d. showing the owner, there may not have been malice or purposeful theft involved.

Jumping to conclusions can lead to embarrassing situations.

Ebor

In case you had read my first post, you'd know that they were entirely unrelated name brands. It was a Sony Walk-Man from the early 90's with a relatively new pair of headphones that were not Sony but the brand-name found at Hastings. The radio is not made anymore. Only I had the match of that particular radio and that particular pair of headphones. Furthermore, the uncertainty as to how he acquired them was one reason why I did not approach him. If I had just carelessly left them on the bus, then I deserved to lose them.

Matthew, I am *not* trying to give you a hard time. I'm just trying to get across to you that things you do are not likely to be unique and never done by anyone else. And that sometimes people jumping to conclusions leap to the wrong result.

I have electronics where one part is not the same brand as another as do people I know. It happens when something breaks or gets misplaced. Just having the same brand name components does not guarantee that it was yours. Distinctive marks, scratches, spots of paint etc are much more individual and show previous ownership. You did the right thing by not demanding the gear because you did not know what might be the full facts of the case.

Calm thought. Let us not be hasty.

No offense is meant here, Matthew. Please believe me.

Ebor

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"I wish they would remember that the charge to Peter was "Feed my sheep", not "Try experiments on my rats", or even "Teach my performing dogs new tricks". - C. S. Lewis

And that sometimes people jumping to conclusions leap to the wrong result.

Same headphones, same radio, same college. That is perhaps too much of a coincidence. I am over this now but I doubt that I will allow this to happen again. If there is a next time that I am stolen from, I will confront the individual. It would be better to politiely confront the person than to allow him to steal from others and maybe even progress into even worse acts. And as I said before, if I just lost them, then I deserve to have them gone.

Eh..........you must have some self-control Matthew.........see if it was me, I wouldve went St. Alexander Nevsky on his a**, battlecry and all...........ha

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"All this indignation have I hurled, At the pretending part of the proud world. Who, swollen with selfish vanity devise: false freedoms, holy cheats, and formal lies, Over their fellow slaves to tyrannize." - John Wilmot

Matt, I think you did the right thing, and if you have that much self-control, wow!!! I would've gone crazy, but I am spiritually immature still. I was an atheist about six months ago and before that, a functional agnostic. I personally am proud that one of our generation is so willing to do what you did and is so empty of materialism that plagues our generation (including myself). Thank you for being an inspiration.

Adrian Davila

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At His Feet The Six-Winged Seraph, Cherubim, With Sleepless Eye, Veil Their Faces To His Presence As With Ceasless Voice They Cry:Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ Lord Most High! --From the Liturgy of St. James (Translated by Gerard Moultrie)

Matt, I think you did the right thing, and if you have that much self-control, wow!!! I would've gone crazy, but I am spiritually immature still. I was an atheist about six months ago and before that, a functional agnostic. I personally am proud that one of our generation is so willing to do what you did and is so empty of materialism that plagues our generation (including myself). Thank you for being an inspiration.

Adrian Davila

The way I figure it, if he could not have afforded to pay for the Walk-Man, then it was actually kind of a gift. Looking back, the only reason why I would approach him would to be to help stop him from stealing from anyone else. I have the money to buy another pair of five dollar headphones anyway.

Now that the topic has been exhausted, perhaps it is sort of pointless. Allow us to change topic mid-thread:Do the members of the "Christian" alternative metal band P.O.D. smoke pot? This is something that kind of bothers me. I own Southtown and Satellite, which are good albums, but their references to Rastafarian terms kind of get annoying after awhile. P.O.D. is, after all, a street term for marijuana. On the street, "P.O.D." stands for "Past Over-dosed". In fact, there is a Bone Thugs song entitled "P.O.D." Furthermore, just as "pot" is a slang for marijuana, "pod" is also. The members of the band admit to having smoked marijuana in their high school years, perhaps they still do but are not open about it, due to their audience. Think about it. Why else would their guitarist leave the band over "spiritual differences"? I don't know but this all sounds a little too suspicious to me.